Nicole Ruggiero

Elizabeth Avenue School

March 16, 2015
Period 3 10:30-11:10
Grade 4/Resource Room
Poetry: Gallery Walk
Subject/Topic/Activity: Writing
1. Standards:
W.4.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development
and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
RL.4.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature,
including stories, dramas, and poetry, in the grades 4-5 text
complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high
end of the range.
SL.4.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions
(one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on
grade 4 topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing
their own clearly.
2. Objectives: SWBAT read poetry and respond to it in writing about
what they noticed, what they liked/disliked, any connections they
can make, and/or what the poem is about.
3. Materials: about 8 poems backed on large white paper
4. Procedure
Introduction:
So for the past month we have been working with informational
texts and writing informational writing. Today we are going to be
starting a brand new unit on poetry. Before we launch into
writing poetry, I would like for you to be exposed to it a little bit.
So, today we are going to be doing a poetry gallery walk.
Body:
I am going to send you all off to read the poems around the
room and I would like for you to respond on the white
background about things you noticed, what you like or do not
like, any connections you can make, or even what the poems are
about. I would like for you to respond to at least 3 of them.
Before I send you off, I am going to read the poems out loud to
you. Read each of the poems. Remind the students the types of
responses that I am looking for and then send them off to
respond to the poems. They are to respond to the poems and
then return to their seats to wait for the others to finish.

Closing:
Once all of the students have finished responding to the poetry,
have the students come up one at a time to read the responses
that they wrote on the poems. If applicable, ask questions like:
Why do you think the poet did that? or [How] does that
experience you wrote about make you like the poem better?
[Why or why not?]
5. Assessment
The students will have met the objective if they were able to
respond to the poem in at least 1 of 4 ways: what they noticed,
what they liked/disliked, making connections to the poem, a brief
summary statement about the poem.
6. Management Issues, Transitions, and Differentiation:

If students exhibit off-task behaviors, I will remind them of the

rules and make use of the behavior chart, if necessary.
The poems will be spaced apart throughout the room so that
there will not be too much traffic.
Some of the poems used language that the students may not
have understood, so I read it out loud to them first.
If a student is having trouble responding to at least 3, I will allow
him/her to respond to 1-2.
Students can write as much or as little as they are able to.
The getting up and walking around is good for the students who
are kinesthetic learners and have difficulty with attention.

7. Self Reflection and Evaluation of Lesson:

This lesson was taught on March 16th, 2015. The objective of this
lesson was for the students to able to read poetry and respond to it in
writing about what they noticed, what they liked/disliked, any
connections they can make, and/or what the poem is about. An
effective part of this lesson was when I read the poems aloud for the
students. I think that this really helped them to understand. I also even
asked a few students to come up and help me read the poems that
were a little easier to keep them engaged. Another effective part of
this lesson was giving the students specific prompts to be writing
about. This gave the students a focus and something to look for as
they went around to read and respond to the poems. One thing that I
would change about this lesson is that I would try to find poems that
relate to all the students. One student really did not want to respond to
any of the poems because he did not like any of them. We got him to
write what he did not like about a specific poem and then I let him sit

down to wait for the other students to share. But overall, this lesson
went very well. Next time, I would like to give the students a preassessment of having them write their own poem so that I can see
where the students are in terms of poetry knowledge.
8. Comments on Lesson by Cooperating Teacher
Reading the poems to the students was a good idea because I do not
think they would have fully understood them otherwise. It was also
great that you told them the types of things that they should be
responding about. Like you said, it made the lesson more focused. It is
always difficult to continue on with the lesson when a student is being
uncooperative, but I thought you handled it well by allowing him to
only respond to one of the poems. Overall, great job!